Nintendo Promises More Third Party Support for 3DS

Share.

Satoru Iwata says 'western' 3DS software will be announced around E3.

By Audrey Drake

In a recent investor Q&A, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed the question of third party support from western developers for the 3DS. Iwata admitted "there may appear to be fewer commitments from the U.S. and the European software publishers than those of their Japanese counterparts." He went on to explain the situation, attributing this lack of western support to "the different timing (between Japan and overseas) when they noticed that the Nintendo 3DS would surely expand widely into their markets and, thus, the different timing when they started the actual development of the Nintendo 3DS software."

Japanese software has dominated the 3DS market, both in the U.S. and overseas. First party titles like Super Mario 3D Land, Mario Kart 7 and Kid Icarus Uprising have stood alongside Japanese third party games like Resident Evil Revelations, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance and Monster Hunter 3G at the top of the sales charts (those last two are only out in Japan at the moment; Kingdom Hearts 3D is headed stateside this July). But despite this lull in western software, Iwata isn't worried.

"You will also notice a change in this situation when a richer Nintendo 3DS software lineup in the overseas markets is announced around the time of the E3 show," Iwata said. "In Japan, we have this solid feeling that the Japanese publishers will continuously support the Nintendo 3DS. Accordingly, I have no pessimistic view on the Nintendo 3DS software lineup."

Could we have some major third party game announcements to look forward to at this year's show? We'll find out soon enough.

Audrey Drake is an Associate Editor of IGN.com and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can follow her zany exploits on her IGN blog and Twitter. Game on!